Yuli Baicher and his family

Yuli Baicher and his family

This is the Baicher family. Sitting in the armchair on the left is my great-grandfather Aaron Baicher, standing first from right is my grandfather Yuli Baicher.

I guess it is my grandfather's younger brother Grigori Baicher sitting between the two armchairs in the center. I don’t know the other relatives on this photo. This photograph was taken in Moscow sometime between 1895-1897.

My paternal great-grandfather was born in 1799. He was a cantonist. Being an orphan, at the age of 13, he was taken to the tsarist army. He served for 25 years, and then obtained a permit to reside in Moscow.

I don't know where he came from. I think that after his service was over he received a starting capital. My great-grandfather took to business and was quite fortunate.

He became a wood and construction materials dealer. He owned several wood storage facilities and a big house nearby. He was doing so well that during the Russian-Turkish War, my great-grandfather provided horses to the tsarist army.

He got married early. According to the family legend, my great-grandfather had over 40 children. He was married twice. In his first marriage, he had 17 children. This marriage ended tragically.

Near Moscow, bandits attacked the family and killed my great-grandfather's wife and 15 children. Only two children survived. He remarried my great-grandmother Hana.

In this marriage, my great-grandfather had 26 children, and there were two children from his first marriage. People called them 'the Baichers that were almost slaughtered.' I saw one girl whom I met once at my grandmother's house in the 1930s.

Her surname, after her husband, was Poplavskaya. Unfortunately, I don't remember her first name. The family lived in a big house and the sons were growing up and lived to enjoy life. They used to take girls to restaurants. However, they only ate kosher food.

My great-grandfather and his family were religious Jews. He didn't give his children a higher education. He involved his sons in his business and they followed into his footsteps. He died in 1905 at the age of 106.

After having a row with his wife he went to sleep in a summer hut where he caught a cold and died. He was buried in the Jewish section of Dragomilovskoye cemetery.

My grandfather was my great-grandfather's son from his second marriage. He was a big man of pleasant appearance, very kind and tolerant. My grandmother and grandfather met in the house of my great-grandfather's daughter from his first marriage, Poplavskaya.

My grandfather was visiting them and my grandmother came from Smolensk to visit her acquaintances, and that's when they met. Then it was time for my grandmother to go back home to Smolensk.

My grandfather went to take her to the railway station, but he went with her as far as Smolensk and in 1901 they got married.

Their wedding took place at Krasnoye station. It is believed that their wedding was halfway between Moscow and Smolensk. I still have an invitation to the wedding.

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